Christmas is over, Spring is here and the Season of Stupidity has started. For once I don’t even mean the the transfer window.

Today we are still waiting for a decision about the Boro game. It is 12 hours before kick off and it seems no one can make that decision.

What is so difficult?

ALL week the news has been about “The Beast From The East”. The weather has been appalling and every day there is another weather warning and pictures are all over the telly and social media with people crashing and today the British Army has been on the M62 helping people stuck on the roads. The trains aren’t running properly and some people have been stuck on a train overnight.

I am sure some of our Scandinavian friends are laughing, as it hasn’t even started to get cold yet, but the UK just cannot cope with the cold weather. The roads are poor and the transport links are even poorer. A few inches has brought the country to a halt. Whilst the normal people can hunker down and just get on with it, the people who are in charge of the local councils and the road and rail links, the people with the money that the Government gives them, from the money that the Government takes from us in the form of OUR taxes, have more pressing things on their minds. The people in charge of the local councils, the police, the road networks, the bus and train networks are more concerned with making sure that their pensions pots are kept topped up rather than making sure the public services are kept running. I am not complaining about the people who are doing the work, they are doing the best they can, but I am pretty sure that the people gritting the roads must all be wondering why there aren’t more staff hired and more gritters available when the weather is this bad. Winter planning anybody?

So, how does this relate to today?

12 hours before kick off, the M62 is still closed, people have been stranded overnight. The NHS is cancelling non urgent operations because it cannot cope with the emergencies that are coming in and staff cannot get in to work. The Army have had to be called in on some roads. People have been stuck on a train overnight. Yet someone cannot decide whether the game should be called off or not?

For some bizarre reason, the football gods seem to think that fans going to Boro v Leeds will only be travelling from Middlesborough or Leeds. The fact that Leeds fans will be trying to get to the game from all over the UK, not just Leeds, has passed them by. Whilst all they are bothered about is whether the pitch will be playable (how long has under soil heating been available?), no one seems to be bothered about how fans are going to get to the ground in the first place and how they are going to get home. Selfish, selfish TV obsessed football.

I know alot of fans are over from Scandinavia and Ireland as we have two games, and those from Norway and Sweden just don’t know what the fuss is all about, but as I said before, the UK just isn’t equipped for anything over -1!

There will be 2600 Leeds in Boro tonight. If just one coach gets stuck or there is one little accident, can you imagine the impact on the rest of us? Coming back from Derby was bad enough with the motorway roadworks and overnight closures, if the roads are down to one lane and there is just one accident, can you imagine the carnage? If the trains stop, how are the train rabble going to get home? If the police are happy for 2000+ Leeds fans to be stuck in Boro, then I hope they have a plan to accomodate us all. Me, I hope if we get stuck, we get stuck outside a pub with a nice warm fire and some good real ale.

Should anything serious happen, and it better not, I hope Leeds United, Middlesborough FC, the police and more importantly SkyTvisf**kings**talloneword can live with the consequences. Crossing your fingers and hoping nothing will happen, just isn’t good enough.

When will we ever learn? Back to Bob Dylan again. When will we ever learn?

A whirlwind start to 2018 began with the January to forget in terms of red cards, losing to lower league opposition in the FA Cup, fighting back to level up against Millwall with 10 men (only to lose in injury time), new badge launches, retraction of new badges after change.org went thermo nuclear and all the rest. You could not make this up. It’s like watching a soap opera. On second thoughts, there’s been no murders or plane crashes, so not so much a soap opera, more like a pantomime.

So, how could we top that off? I know, let’s sack the manager… oh no we can’t… oh yes we can! Lord knows what Mad March is going to give us. I don’t even want to think that far ahead.

So, the curtain comes down on TC. He bowed out after we lost to Cardiff, a fortnight last Saturday, to a chorus of boos from the crowd. No thanks for one of the best starts to the season in recent times. No thanks for some of the best awaydays we have had in years. No thanks for getting our defence as solid as a rock again, and no thanks for THAT Pablo goal against Burton. Had we kept 11 men on the pitch, we could have got a result. Warnock’s bully boys weren’t that good, they flattered to deceive. Realistically, our team is horribly depleted. Depleted because of injuries, which we can’t really do anything about, and depleted because of really poor behaviour on the pitch. Poor and at times, unsportsmanlike, behaviour which has seen us collect 7 red cards already this season in the League and the Cup.

We haven’t had our first team players all out on the pitch at the same time since New Years Day against Forest. As much as the majority of fans simply put down our losing streak to the manager, it is blatantly obvious that our dip in form is directly related to the number of injuries and suspensions that we have been subject to. Even before Forest, it seemed like some of the team were deliberately trying to get sent off (Vieira at Wolves) to jeopardise our onwards push to the play offs, ruining that brilliant start. After Bridcutt assassinated Ayling’s ankle at Elland Road in a bold and uneffacing manner, incidentally the likes of which we never saw anything of during his time with us, our players have been steadily crossed off the team sheet with the large red marker pen wielded by the football gods.

The same football gods who cannot and should not be dishonoured by fielding a weakened cup side.

Cut to the cries of those who mercilessly booed TC off the pitch, both at home to Cardiff and at the final whistle at Hull the other week. Those who have shorter memories than the most schizophrenic of goldfish in Ridsdale’s gold plated fish tanks. Not only can they not remember hailing TC as The Messiah not even 6 months ago, but they selectively forget pouring scorn on the likes of Villa and Derby for such a faltering start. Cut back to present day and look who’s laughing at us now.

When will we ever learn? What do we need to learn?

At the time of first writing this article, Radrizzani had just sacked TC. The vultures had just landed and all the amassed keyboard warriors in the ranks of Leeds United fans had one thing on their minds… we need an English manager. This is the first thing we need to learn. What exactly have our most recent English managers done for us? Using the wise words from worldfootball.net (not Wikipeddler) I have tried to sum this up in a historical, rather than hysterical, format.

Grayson? He lasted quite a while, from Dec 2008 to Feb 2012 and he did ok with the squad he had and the tight reins of the then owner. Redfearn then had his first stint then for 15 days until Warnock came in. Warnock? I have VERY strong opinions on Colin, some of which are just not suitable for this or any other public article. Suffice to say, in the words of the Harry Enfield character, Frank Doberman, Oi – Warnock – No! When Colin arrived, we weren’t in much trouble, swanning about in mid table mediocrity, as per the norm under “I promise I will get Leeds out of The Championship” bates – and surely he did – by getting us relegated to Division 3. Granted, by the time Colin left, we hadn’t got relegated, but we were dangerously swimming against the tide. Redders stepped in again for a total of 9 days before we struck gold (at the time it seemed anyway) with Brian McDermott. Brian survived a near miss sacking but then it all fell away after he struggled to have a plan B, not the first time I will say this. Dave Hockaday then survived for 3 months in June 2014, but only because we didn’t technically play any games for most of it. He was summarily despatched in the August, faring only marginally worse than contestants in the Big Brother house. For Redders, it wasn’t third time lucky, as Milanic was drafted in (see below). Redders’s – 4th time is a charm- last attempt was slightly longer before he was ousted by Uwe, again see below. Redders was the fans favourite, given his pedigree with the Youth Team, but that’s where his limit lay, sadly, no Plan A, Plan B or Plan C. Which takes us to Steve Evans, and well he did ok and should have been given more time in my opinion. Plus he came to Supporters Club meetings and wore his LUSC tie proudly! The only manager in recent years who had time for the ordinary fans, and I respect him alot for that. He wasn’t my first choice, but he was a genuine guy and I think he was proud to come to us. None of the rest of them showed any interest, for all their talk of how amazing they thought the fans were. I’m not even going to give the Snake a proper mention. No Plan A, B, C, D or E. F for fail in old O level speak! U in old A level – unrecordable – means you didn’t even get your name right at the top of the page.

I agree that our foreign managers haven’t been up to scratch either. Uwe Rosler,  he had a bad start in his managerial reign in that pre-season friendly in Austria, and it didn’t bode too well for him after that. Then, Darko Milanic, who is back at Maribor by all accounts, but at the time, given all the off pitch shenanigans with the FA and EFL trying to get Sig Cellino sent back to Italy, there were too many distractions for them to concentrate on winning games.

Going back to my original point, however, do we need an English manager? Look at the Man Citys, Chelskis etc. Yes, they have the money to buy players in, but their players still get crocked, and they play their second side. Albeit, even their third/fourth sides are miles better than the Championship first teamers. But, the last English manager to do well in the premier league was….Scottish! Even Leicester were forced to admit that Ranieri was the key to success after Pearson had built the foundations. Once the players turned on Claudio and forced him out, the truth was revealed. Leicester probably won’t get relegated, but only by the virtue that there are worse teams in that league who will. The margin between the top of the premier league and the bottom is huge. Unlike in our league, where a few dropped points from losing when we should have drawn, or drawing when we were ahead and should have finished the game off with another goal rather than sitting back, mean the difference between play offs and mid table mediocrity. Even though it feels like decades since we last won a game, we’re still in the top half and even though I have given up on playoffs and actively thinking about enjoying May this year, it’s not impossible. Just highly unlikely, that’s all.

An English manager is not the be all and end all. I wish Carvalho all the best of luck at Swansea (please can we have Bartley back?), and I will laugh if the Wendies miserably fail. A decent foreign manager with the owner’s full support, and more importantly the financial backing, may be the better solution. Which leads me to my second point, bringing in new players.

Regular readers will know of my intolerance of SkyTVis f**kings**t-all-one-word’s transfer deadline circus, and the keyboard warriors who have a field day hammering on their emoticons / emojis ( I really don’t know what they are called, and I am not  bothered either) at the next prospective signing. Then when we don’t sign any big names in the summer or January, they just bleat about not bringing enough talent up through the reserves. You CANNOT have it both ways! Either you concentrate your efforts on bringing the Youth team through, OR you go for the big money signings. No gifted young player is going to want to plough through the ranks, if at the end of the day, the only prospect of getting in the first team will be playing in a weakened side in the early rounds of the League or FA Cup, when the manager is picking names out of a hat. The reserves should be playing properly, not being despatched to Rhyl to be beaten up, and they should be the source of the substitutes. After that, the Youth team. I cannot believe that we didn’t have a reserve, reserve defence when Ayling, Cooper, Jansson etc. got injured/ suspended early this season. Yes, Pennington and Shaughnessy got injuries too, but what happened to Anita? I really felt for De Bock being brought in before the ink dried on his contract, how can we let ourselves get so depleted of players?

I hate that Alan Hansen catchphrase ” strength in depth” – what does that mean? Depth of what? The bath? Does it just mean a team need a few of each players, or a few utility players to come in for injuries? A while ago, we had Paul Hart at one of the LUSC meetings and he mentioned that premier league scouts were hanging round our Youth Team fixtures like vultures. Is that where our Youth team are going? To “bigger, better” clubs? But only to find, again, that they will never get a first team game as there is always some football agent out there who will be peddling his wares at Christmas. So realistically, it is a no brainer to a kid with talent, stick with your local team or go to a premier league club and warm their bench for more money instead? As I said,  no brainer.

So to Heckingbottom. If Radrizzani had set his heart on targeting an English manager who was already at a club and was willing to pay the other club off, I would have preferred him go to Mansfield and get Big Steve back. Evans has been doing a good job at Mansfield, he knows our set up, and when he came to the LUSC meetings, he was genuinely humbled to be received by us. He could not have shown more respect to us, the ordinary fans, it was more than the lip service that we have endured before him and since. I might add, had Colin offered to come to a meeting, I would rather have spent the evening pulling my teeth out anyway.

I may be proved wrong with Heckingbottom, he might turn out to be just as amenable as Big Steve. He’s a Yorkshireman after all. He might be approaching us as I type and begging to come to an LUSC meeting, who knows? As for his team selection, I am not sure if he picked the team against T’Blades, or he let someone else do it. As much as I like O Kane as a player, I wouldn’t have picked him as Captain. He’s too young and not had enough experience, and that headbutt was rubbish. Didn’t even draw blood. He needs to speak to Beradi and get some lessons into how to properly get sent off for a head butt.  Pablo’s captaincy was also a mistake though, he was like the Scarlet Pimpernel at times against Hull, as he has been most of the season. You cannot fault his talent, but he does do a Lord Lucan. Jokes aside, when the team haven’t been performing and you come in as a new manager, just make the changes. Don’t stick to the failing formula, create your own masterpiece. The world is your oyster. Drop Roofe, he has been pants the last few games, give him a break. Give Sakho a start, play Anita, he looked good at the start of the season before he got injured, play 4-4-2, just face it 4-3-2-1 just doesn’t work.

Put your own mark on it. Make it your own. This is your golden ticket..

Monthly Branch Meeting

Meeting was held on February 4th 2018 at the Londesborough Club. There was much discussion regarding Eric Carlile, which will be covered in AOB. There was also discussion regarding the (failed) launch of the new badge and badgers. There was no discussion regarding the new manager, as it wasn’t until after the meeting that Thomas Christiansen was sacked. We would like to point out that his sacking was nothing to do with us.

Away Games

The bus for T’Blades is currently full with a waiting list. We are still taking bookings for Derby on Weds 20th for anyone wanting a nice afternoon out. The branch will be running a bus to the Boro game on the Friday, ticket details have yet to be released by Leeds United.

Memberships

The Membership Secretary was last seen out at the funeral of Guy Bernard.

A.O.B

The Eric Carlile Memorial Fund

The LUSC have agreed to start the Eric Carlile Memorial Fund. There was much discussion regarding how this fund should be used, whether it be on a trophy to be awarded at the LUSC Annual Dinner or some other award. The branch have suggested a memorial plaque at Elland Road, but this needs to be agreed at the LUSC exec meeting and there needs to be discussion with Leeds United to see if this is possible in the first instance. The branch has agreed to donate £100 of branch funds towards this and any other personal contributions will be most welcome.

R2 Football Special Buses

Dave Poole reported that the shuttle bus service after the home games has improved immensely. Dave first raised this issue two home games ago when the queue in the compound to get back into Leeds post match was horrendous. Glen had also previously raised this issue as well. This was taken to the LUSC exec meeting in January and a reply was received from Fiona Hanley (Supporters Liaison Officer) in the form of an email from First Buses saying that they (First Buses) thought the service was fine and would only change it if the police advised them or if we got promoted. The MPO sent Fiona an email and also raised it as an issue for the next Supporters Advisory Board (SAB) meeting, which was due to be held at the Cardiff game. The SAB meeting did not happen, due to badges/badgers/change.org however, it seems that the message did get through and since then the R2 Football special bus service has improved. The MPO would like to point out that Dave Poole has now had his TV fixed in the North East Corner and his bus service sorted, so given the 3 times a charm rule, his next request should be automatic promotion and a Champions League place.

Well the launch of the new badge has well and truly hijacked Blog number 3 of 2018. Bizarrely enough however, the same themes are running through, if not parallel to my original War and Peace essay. So here’s Blog number 3, take 2.

Loyalty – there’s a thing. Traditions and respect for your history and your humble beginnings – there’s another.

We lost a great friend and mentor in Eric, and as most of you will know, I personally was absolutely outraged (that’s putting it mildly) that the Club and it’s fans did not do more to show their appreciation of this great man. Although there was some outcry at the time on facebook, there was a noticeable quiet from other fan groups. Apart from BBC Radio Leeds, I did not see anything on mainstream media. I can’t recollect anything on Look North nor Calendar despite the extraordinary long service and dedication of this one man to promote Leeds United all over the world.

This led me to think that the “New Era of Leeds United fans” were just not really that bothered about the “Old Guard”. It made me think that the old supporters groups might just be outdated now, with the “new and improved” Bi-Millenials taking centre stage. Thinking about all those “The League is more important than the Cup” comments, the cynic in me says that times have changed. The way we watch football has changed, the way we appreciate football has changed, the way we talk and react to football has changed.  In short, football has changed, and I haven’t… and frankly, I’m not going to.

In the old days, unless your dad / relative / mate’s dad / relative / friend took you to watch a game, you basically were on your own. You may have been in a group at school who went together, but if you weren’t that lucky, and if you loved the team, you just went in head first, because the long and short of it was, you just wanted to watch Leeds United. These were the days when you could walk up to the turnstile and pay on the gate or climb over the walls for the more daring older members. Later on, tearing off your little paper slip from your season ticket book became the norm once terracing areas got their own season tickets. But it didn’t matter then, because you knew that everyone else on that terrace was just there to watch Leeds United as well. It didn’t matter who you were, where you came from or what you did, we were all equals – apart from the ones who had always been there. That was their spot and everyone knew it. If you went and stood in their spot, you would know about it. Terrace etiquette.

Away games were a different kettle of fish. Firstly, if you had never been to a ground before, you had to find it. This was no mean feat, as, if you remember, most grounds were in the middle of town, not these new out of town souless stadia like we have now. Walking round rows of terraced houses looking for Maine Road or Goodison Park, desperately hoping you didn’t bump into a crowd of home fans, was your first hurdle. This was of course, provided you got off at the right train station in the first place, and given that trains weren’t all that good in the old days, this was a recipe for disaster. Those paper timetables with the texture of school toilet paper were terrible if they got wet, difficult to read at the best of times. Trains though cost money, and in the 60s those who couldn’t afford it, well they just hitch-hiked, not as dangerous as it seems in those days (unless you didn’t know where Stoke was). None of this uber and googlemaps rubbish. Having said that, I think I saw something on facebook about some guy that got into a taxi to go to Stamford Bridge and the satnav took him to York. So , ho hum for technological advances.

So this is where the Supporters Clubs were a godsend. Not only did the coach pick you up, but they saved you the hassle of standing at the ticket office, hoping to God that no one could see your colours (after a few times, you stopped wearing your colours) to try and get a ticket anywhere you could. Then they would take you home, or at least to the pub on the way home, if it was open. Because all you wanted to do was to go watch Leeds United. That’s what it was all about then, watching your team. If you didn’t go and watch your team , then you never saw any football unless you caught World of Sport or Grandstand if you had a telly. None of this 600+ channels and sport on demand, every day of every week all year round, that you have nowadays. Saturday was special because Saturday meant football.

The loyalest fans went everywhere. No matter how much it cost in time and money, somehow you just did. Missing a game was unimaginable. These loyal fans weren’t celebrity fans, they didn’t tell everyone how much of a fan they were, they just went to the games and watched the 11 men on the pitch, and everyone knew it. They didn’t have famous friends, and if anything the players themselves recognised the ones that travelled everywhere, and they were proud of them. The players were proud of the fans – who’d have thought?

Nowadays, if you don’t post on social media, no one knows who you are. The loudest voices of the “fans” are those who are adept at using social media to their own ends. The ones the media take note of are the ones with all the means and the  money who organise plane fly pasts and inflated overhead projections. The ones who are famous for tweeting and retweeting and commenting on whatever late breaking news SkyTVis f**kings**t-all-one-word are peddling on their “transfer window exclusives”. Are these people the real fans, or are the real fans just those who want to go watch Leeds United? And I do mean the ones that want to watch the football, not these that want to go and do anything but watch the game. Why spend your time and money going to a game if you are just going to look at your phone for 45 minutes, take a 15 minute break and then go back on your phone for another 45 minutes? May as well just stop at home and sit on the toilet and do that. At least you won’t have to get up and go for a piss. Yes, jump up and down to celebrate when we score, but bringing in smoke bombs, having beer fights and spending the game whingeing about needing a new striker and arguing with your own fans, not funny, not clever and not Leeds. Not the Leeds of old, and as it should be, not the New Era of Leeds United.

How ironic then that Leeds United bring out a new badge that they say they have consulted with 10,000 fans on and within half an hour there are 10,000 people going on change.org moaning that they haven’t been consulted. Although, if you remember Ridsdale said that 38,000 fans voted to move away from Elland Road to Swillington, so at least 10k isn’t that bad. How ironic that some complainents may be some of the same people who think that the Club need to move forward, away from the old days and embrace the next 100 years because the New Era of Leeds United is about bringing in new blood.  How ironic is it that some of these same people believe that the loyal fans of the last 10+ years of decline, don’t really matter (especially when it comes to getting away tickets!), because it’s about the “new” generation of fans. How ironic is it that the simple act of recognising a proper Leeds United legend goes by without a murmur, brushed under the carpet because it’s part of the “old fashioned supporters club” era and this is the New Improved Modern Era of Leeds United. How ironic is it that remembering your history, being proud of your history and honouring the traditions of the oldest footballing tournament in the world isn’t that important, but when it comes to a new badge, all of a sudden, the words tradition and history are being used like they are going out of date ( pardon the pun).

Me, The new badge is growing on me. I never liked the shield, yes, it took us to the Champions League semi final, but it is tarred. Tarred with the horrors in Turkey, tarred with the Bowyer-Woodgate mess, tarred with Ridsdale and his gold plated fish tanks, tarred with O Leary and his book and last but by all means not least, tarred by Bates and Shaun Harvey.

Good riddance.

All hail the New Era of Leeds United. On On On.

ps thanks to Fear and Loathing in LS11 for the picture ( I have tried to tag you in it but this version of wordpress isn’t having it)

I’ve looked at this from both sides now, from up and down, and still somehow – no,  I still can’t see it.

It isn’t just the football club with it’s lackadaisical attitude to the FA Cup, it’s the fans as well. The ones who think the league is more important than the Cup. They might as well just take off with the team on some money spinning Asia/Australasia/America tour on the FA Cup weekends. They might enjoy themselves more doing that, seeing as The FA Cup just isn’t relevant to them anymore. After all, it was only Don Revie who said that winning the FA Cup was the best day of his life.

It is just too easy to forget the days of the whole country grinding to a halt on Cup Final day and everyone crowding around the one telly in the street to see the game. The days when you only got 3 live games on the telly a year, the FA Cup Final, England v Scotland and occassionally the European Cup Final if an English team was in it.

Following on from my letter to the Club, here is the letter to the fans (in the loosest possible terms of my understanding of the word “fans”).

Dear Football fan

The time is drawing near for you to plan your football watching season in 2019.

If you are one of those who think the league is far more important that the FA Cup, can I please request that you book your holidays for the Cup weekends, thereby sparing the rest of us from your negative defeatist attitudes. As the FA Cup weekends are generally in winter, warmer climes are appropriate and you will reduce the demand on school holiday time for the rest of us.

In the extremely unlikely event of the Club taking the competition seriously and progressing into the later stages of the FA Cup, please can you spare us from the whingeing about not being able to get a ticket to that “glory tie”.  If your mantra is “The Cup doesn’t really matter”, this smacks of total, utter, complete hypocrisy and someone needs to slap you in the face with a cold wet fish. I wonder how many of you were clamouring for one of the 8000+ £48 tickets for Old Trafford a few seasons ago? More importantly, how many of you would admit to it?

I would also like to point out that joining in with the “January 3rd, remember the date” is also seen as hypocrisy of the highest order, please desist with immediate effect.

Losing any game is not to be taken lightly. Losing to lower league opposition, is particularly damaging to team spirit and the knock on effect of a defeat by minnows will invariably affect the performance in the subsequent games. As a fan, your objectives should always be to celebrate a win.

Yours truly

A football fan from days gone by

ps

Shame on you for forgetting your history. Shame on you for forgetting the great Revie era. Shame on you for forgetting Side before Self. Shame on you for forgetting that it is all about for playing for the team and the pride of the shirt. Every game matters, week in, week out. That is just how it is.